FCC Regulations Protect Net Neutrality for Internet Consumers
In February, the Federal Communications Commission voted to create new guidelines to limit the ability of Internet Service Providers to manage Internet traffic speeds. In doing so, the FCC sided with Internet advocates and politicians — including President Barack Obama — pushing for “Net Neutrality” and against major ISPs looking to have more over how their Internet speeds are given to customers.
Net Neutrality is the concept that all people should have equal access to traffic on their Internet network. This means that their speeds should be the same as anyone else’s on the same network, regardless of how much high-speed bandwidth they use or which sites they are using. Net Neutrality would ban ISPs from slowing user’s Internet speeds — this includes blocking or slowing access to certain sites to favor their services versus their competitors.
ISPs argued that media sites such as Netflix and YouTube — along with BitTorrent sites — were clogging Internet bandwidth on their networks. They believe that these media sites should have to pay extra in order to provide their customers with unlimited Internet speeds in order to cover the costs of maintaining and growing high-speed broadband connections on the networks.
A U.S. appeals court ruling in 2014 struck down rules prohibiting ISPs from blocking Internet traffic. The FCC responded by creating new regulations that initially would have created a path for ISPs to create “commercially reasonable” pay-for-priority deals with media companies. However, this move was widely criticized by Internet advocates. Even President Obama intervened and called on the FCC to reverse the planned law to be more restrictive of Internet service blocking.
The FCC relented in February and changed course. They used the earlier appeals court ruling to expand their control over deals between content companies and ISPs along with reclassifying broadband to prevent ISPs from blocking their services. ISPs contend that these new rules will stifle innovation and investment in the existing network infrastructure by limited potential revenue streams.
